So, yesterday, 8/28/25, I got a window of opportunity to run to the river for several hours for sea trial #4.
Executive summary: It was the most productive trial yet and very encouraging that I'm on the right track and there's light at the end of the tunnel. However, it opened up a new can of worms. It's a good thing this project is a labor of love or else there's one Speedster that would be residing in the landfill right now!
Background: Recall that the last sea trial the starboard engine flamed out after about five minutes of running and would start on choke but immediately die again. So, what I did in interim was to replace the starboard carb with one of those ebay $100 knockoffs. Now, I've got the brand new knockoffs on both the starboard and port engines. Bye the way, the knockoffs do not, of course, come with the correct jetting so both the pilot and mains have to be replaced. Otherwise, I defy somebody to tell the difference between the knockoff and an OEM carb. except the logo is missing. Sorry, I digress.
So, at the pier both engines immediately start and settle into a purr. I prematurely tweak the idle speeds only to have to return them later to their original positions. Motor away from pier and put pedal to metal. Goes to plane immediately and I'm off and running. Then, the anomalies start to make themselves known.
1. The (newly remanufactured) port engine would only pull to 4500 rpm. Ran clean and smooth but no matter what circumstance, 4500 was all she would pull. No cavitation evident. So, side issue but I'll need to investigate further. Could I have possibly installed the rotary valve out of time? Seems unlikely to me, but theory fits symptom. I will, of course, check the throttle plate for anomalies there but that's a long shot since I just checked functionality before going on sea trial.
2. When the starboard engine would get a little above 4500, it would fairly quickly zoom to 7000. I thought at first it was cavitating and it may well have been doing so. However, it was producing thrust out the wazoo. With both engines running 4500 and on plane I was making an estimated 25 mph easy. (Broken speedometer of course) But when I would increase the throttles to full the boat would notably accelerate and I would estimate I was getting 35 - 40 mph with the port engine at 4500 and the starboard at 7000. And, I never let the boat accelerate all the way before backing off. So, it sounded for all the world like cavitation on the starboard side but I was getting major thrust. If the port side would've done what the starboard side was doing, I'm quite sure the boat would have pulled north of 50 mph pretty easily.
3. I spent the better part of 45 minutes running the boat around 25 - 35 mph with both engines at 4500 rpm. What a sweet spot!
4. Something is screwy with the forward/reverse gate setup. In neutral I'm getting a disconcerting forward movement. In forward at idle I'm getting about what I would expect at idle, in other words, no-wake speed. In reverse I'm getting nothing to speak of even at elevated throttle. I can't envision there's something wrong with the selector cable travel. Although I will now double check it (again). Also, in forward the gates are locking into the latch properly. But, it would seem that, for some reason, the gate travel is not sufficient to "engage" reverse position properly. Hmmm. Now, I will mention just to throw up a probable red herring that the pumps have been assembled from the "best parts" of four pump assemblies that I started with. Is it possible that there are different gate designs and I have the wrong set of gates on there for the application? Of course I will be checking this out asap.
So, just wanted to share the latest in this never-ending saga. Next report when I have it.
